In 2024, we reached a significant milestone by combining Novozymes and Chr. Hansen to create Novonesis, marking a crucial step towards leading the era of biosolutions.

The integration process, while ongoing and on track, has already demonstrated strong progress, with high levels of employee engagement and the realization of synergies that enable us to make an even bigger impact for our stakeholders. Throughout this transition, we have maintained business continuity, ensuring steady operations and consistent service and supply to our customers.
 

Setting the right foundation

Our employees have been the cornerstone of this success, demonstrating resilience, adaptability and a steadfast belief in our shared journey ahead. Through dialogue and networks across our company, including our change agents setup, we have remained in tune with the organization to understand the key concerns and topics on employees’ minds.

We have also kept a keen focus on employee engagement through regular surveys, and we have In 2024, we reached a significant milestone by combining Novozymes and Chr. Hansen to create Novonesis, marking a crucial step towards leading the era of biosolutions. been pleased to see that engagement has remained high, surpassing benchmarks even for companies not undergoing an integration process.

Our employees have played an active role in helping define a shared company culture, one that blends the best of both legacy companies, while positioning us for future success. Through extensive surveys and culture workshops, we identified elements we value and we believe should define the way we work, interact and behave. This collaborative effort has been instrumental in creating a foundation for a Novonesis culture that resonates both locally and globally, bringing us one step closer to operating as a unified company.
 

Structure and synergies

Following the combination, we began establishing our organizational structure to ensure that we fully leverage the synergies and complementarities of Novonesis.

Our business is split into two divisions: Food & Health Biosolutions and Planetary Health Biosolutions. Around 45% of our sales are attributed to solutions that support healthier lives, and around 55% to solutions that support a healthier planet.

Our Food & Health Biosolutions enable food and beverages with better taste and texture, and with less sugar and more fiber. They can deliver lifelong health benefits with supplements that target specific health needs, including mental wellness, oral and gut health, and immune, women’s and infant health benefits.

Our Planetary Health Biosolutions help companies and consumers reduce their use of fossil-based resources, chemicals and energy. They help keep clothes clean with lower energy and water use, and they unlock more sustainable protein sources. At the same time, they enable higher yields from fewer resources across fields and factories.

With our organizational structure in place, we are focusing on both short- and long-term agendas, including the execution of cost and sales synergies. We are progressing well on our three-year cost synergy program, and we have achieved an 80% run rate in 2024. This was made possible by operating in a cost-effective manner and through close collaboration with suppliers, focusing on opportunities within our direct and indirect spending. Sales synergies are also beginning to materialize and are expected to be delivered over the next three years.

During the year, we started seeing the first concrete examples of sales synergies, through the first commercial launches and the first cross-selling synergies across our food and health businesses. This was made possible by leveraging our commercial scale and joint innovation capabilities in a cross-functional team.